Artwork Preparation
This is a complete toolkit for you to reference when converting, designing, and
prepping your artwork for uploading.
Screen Printed Transfer on 100% Nylon
Convert RGB artwork to CMYK before uploading.
Because the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color profile is designed for screens, artwork in RGB will look different when printed than it did on a screen, often much darker.
Converting artwork to the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) color profile before submitting will ensure it’s optimized for printing.
Each has its own benefits and we take both. Check to see if
your artwork is vector or raster by opening it and zooming in.
As you zoom in on vector artwork, the edges of objects will always remain sharp. This is because vector artwork is composed of responsive mathematical formulas, meaning you can take a t-shirt tag and scale it up to billboard size and there would be no loss in resolution.
The benefits of a vector artwork is that because of it’s hard edges, it’s the standard for achieving a classic screen printed look.
Send vector artwork for: Screen Printed, Full Color Fusion®, and DTF transfers.
As you zoom in on raster artwork, eventually you can see individual blocks of color. This is because raster artwork is pixel based, meaning it is made up of tiny colored elements that create gradients. As a result, enlarging raster artwork too much can sometimes result in a blurry image. This is why we recommend a minimum of 300 DPI for artwork composed of raster images for the highest quality print possible.
The benefits of a raster artwork is the abiltiy to print a full spectrum of colors, gradients, and photo realistic images
Send raster artwork for: raster areas of Full Color Fusion®, and DTF transfers.
Objects and lines in your vector art should be at least 1pt thick and areas between objects and
lines (knockouts) should be at least 2pt thick to ensure your artwork prints properly.
To check the thickness of the details in your artwork, open it in a vector based
program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.
Once opened in a vector program, draw a 1pt
stroke line and compare that line to any
concerning objects in your art.
Once opened in a vector program, draw a 2pt
stroke line and compare that line to any
concerning knckout areas in your art.
If the artwork has already been created before it has been decided which type of heat transfer to order, how colors
transition between each other in the artwork might play a major role in determining which heat transfer product to order.
When transitioning from one color to another, there are two techniques to do it: gradients or halftones.
Use the appropriate technique for the type of heat transfer you want to order
When you zoom into vector gradients, you can still
see that the transition between colors is
seamless. For raster gradients it’s the same, but
eventually you will see the individual pixels making
up the gradient if you zoom in enough.
Send artwork with gradients for: raster areas of
Full Color Fusion®, and DTF transfers.
When you zoom into half tones, you can see that
that the transition between colors is made up of
individual dots that vary in size and the spacing
bewtween them to create the effect of a gradient
Send artwork with halftones for: vector areas of
Full Color Fusion®, and Screen Printed Transfers.
When printing your art it's important for us to note that not all inks in our stock work
the same way. The following inks are ones to pay attention to when using for your artwork.
These inks print transparent and are best printed on white
garments or backed with white ink to ensure proper
opacity and vibrance.
Reflective ink is best used with less
complex images so its reflectiveness
is more apparent in your art.
Works best on black or dark colored
garments.
Glow is a transparent layer used to
coat areas of your art, so it needs to
be printed on top of other colors.
You can request to have your transfers cut and seperated before they're delivered.
Review the guidelines below to see how your artwork will need to be ganged on the sheet so it can be cut by our machines.
Cutting fee: $0.80 per sheet
Our machines make straight cuts that pass through
the entire sheet so your artwork will need to be
ganged up with this in mind.
If you would like cuts to be made that don’t pass
through the entire transfer, the cuts will need to be
placed in a way so the sheet can be cut into two
sections first, with the remaining cuts being made
afterwards. We are not able to make diagonal cuts.